How 41 Conquest boys helped bring almost 1,000 souls to confession during the World Youth Day celebrations.

An ECYD boy promotes the sacrament of Confession.

July 30, 2008. Sydney, Australia. “It was an incredible experience.
I’d never seen anything like it or been part of
anything like it,” said Nick Lulli, 18, a Regnum Christi
youth who volunteered his help for the ECYD Convention leading
up to World Youth Day in Sydney. He was talking
about the experience of promoting the sacrament of Confession at
Randwick Raceway in Sydney before and after the Vigil on
Saturday, July 19.

“You would see people come in, you’d
spend 3 to 5 minutes just talking to one person
about why they should go to confession. They’d be kind
of reluctant at first, but then they’d come out crying
and thanking you. Then they would help you promote confession.”

During the course of the “Confessions marathon”, Fr Michael Sliney,
LC, and the other priests heard close to 1,000 confessions
in total.

An International Business

For Fr Michael, World Youth Days
are magnificent opportunities to “set up shop,” as he calls
it. The shop is simple. It’s a little stool. When
he sits down and puts on his purple stole, the
stool becomes a makeshift confessional, the line begins to form,
and sacramental grace begins to flow. On occasions like World

Fr Michael Sliney, LC, hearing confessions at the World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia.

Youth Days, he and his fellow priests are accustomed to
sitting for hours to hear confessions, keenly aware that this
is a special moment of grace for the souls, an
opportunity that must not be wasted.

This time, Fr
Michael had a few “business partners” to help him recruit
for the “shop”— 41 Conquest boys, to be exact. It
wasn’t long before the line of penitents became impossibly long.
Meanwhile, a diocesan priest noticed and set up his own
“shop”, asking the boys to recruit for him as well.
Moved by their example, several other priests joined them, until
there were about 7 priests hearing confessions all in the
same area – and this was in addition to the
official confessions area near the adoration chapel, which was rather
far away from the heart of the action. This confessions
zone was in a highly trafficked area with plenty of
passers-by and sufficient visibility to attract interest.

Before long, the international
clientele of penitents required knowledge of more languages. Fr Michael
Sliney could handle English, Spanish, Italian, and French. But the
souls also required Chinese, German, Portuguese, Arabic, Polish, and Russian.
So the boys took it upon themselves to recruit more
multilingual priests so that no one would have to go
without the sacrament of Confession.

The “shop” was in
operation from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. with a pause for
the Pope’s arrival. After Pope Benedict left, Fr Michael and
the other priests set up shop again, and continued hearing
confessions from 10:30 p.m. to 2:30 in the morning. At
2:30 a.m., Fr Michael had to leave, but a diocesan
priest came over and offered to take his place, remaining
another hour.

During this time, the boys promoted confessions nonstop. Some
were so energized by the experience that they forgot to

Advertising for multilingual confessions.

eat. Nicholas Dodson, 13, from Raleigh, NC was so busy
finding penitents and taking care of the priests—finding food for
them, hunting down a sweater for a diocesan priest as
the evening got chilly—that he didn’t have dinner till late
at night. He was putting the needs of the souls
ahead of his own.

Working the Crowd

The experience of inviting people
to go to Confession was a powerful one for the
boys. What was so deeply satisfying was the realization that
they were reaching people who ordinarily didn’t care about Confession,
or who hadn’t been to the sacrament in years. They
were making a profound difference because their outreach was touching
all kinds of people, including those on the margins of
the Catholic faith.

“If you hadn’t offered, I’m not sure
I would have gone,” said one woman, between tears. She
was crying for joy.

“It was often difficult to
persuade penitents to attend, or to get any positive reaction
at all out of the apathetic passersby. But so frequently
our young men were presented with tangible and profound proof
of the importance of their sacrifice: the beautiful testimonies of
the penitents,” said Nick Lulli. His account of their experiences
continues:

“A number of the most reluctant penitents provided the most
heart-wrenching testimony. After several minutes of relentless conversation, and in
a few cases nearly half an hour, many prospective recipients
of the sacrament entered the line and began preparing their
confession. Their tearful expressions of gratitude were what inspired us to
stay the course and remain steadfast. Countless newly-cleansed souls wept
tears of joy while they thanked us profusely for convincing
them to overcome their fears and doubts, and to return
to the sacrament. Many of these same people, initially the
most resistant or unlikely of candidates, promoted confessions with us

after their encounter with Christ in Confession for up to
hours at a time.

“One moment you would see a friend
earnestly in conversation with a skeptic pilgrim, the next you
would see that same pilgrim in the confessional, weeping along
with the priest. It was common to hear a man exclaim
to us, ‘Thank you so much for making me go
to Confession, I haven’t gone since primary school.’ Or even
further, ‘I’ve never gone to Confession before. Thank you all
so much for your witness.’ Those that experienced these conversions
through Confession but did not promote with us afterward for
an extended period of time would nearly always persuade their
tepid friends to take the plunge into the fountain of
grace that they had found so refreshing. Men and women
thanked us for our physical testimony, calling it ‘inspirational’ and
‘magnificent.’

“Some of the more wizened members of the event told
us that we changed their perspective on our generation. I
had never seen anything like it. Hardly any guys tired
of their arduous task, many remaining at their posts for
the entire duration of the apostolate. People would pass by
once, and then hours later, and see the same motivated
young men, doing the same thing. One guy told me
the story of a short conversation that captured the mood
of the group and the aura of exuberant tenacity that
permeated our entire section throughout our pilgrimage, but especially during
this apostolic endeavor:

“A woman, after passing him in the early
afternoon, saw him again, his voice a little the worse
for wear, still exclaiming proudly, “Confessions, right this way!” She
inquired incredulously, “Are you guys still out here? I can’t
believe it. Don’t you get tired just standing out here
in the cold? Wouldn’t you rather just walk around and
have some fun? Doesn’t it get boring? Why do you
do this?” To which our well-formed young man answered, “Yeah.
It’s exhausting, but we do it for Christ”. This simple
yet profound response stopped her dead in her tracks and
changed her whole outlook on Confession. We cannot know the
extent to which we affected those we came into contact
with during our ministry, but one can certainly make an
informed assumption based on the reactions and testimonies of those
that did open their hearts to us.

“I have attended many
trips sponsored by the Legionaries, frequently with Fr. Michael, but
never before have I seen such stunning evidence of the
return on an investment of sacrifice,” he said.

Fr Michael Sliney
commented that the boys rose to the occasion and took
the sacrifices in stride without complaining. “The trip to Australia
was a financial sacrifice for a lot of our kids,
and it was also a physical sacrifice sleeping on the
ground and promoting confessions all night. But none of the
kids complained. They were happy to go through a little
adversity for Christ.”

"These are quality guys,” reported another Conquest participant.
“They were the only ones out there promoting confessions. Imagine
what WOULDN´T have happened if they and Father Michael hadn´t
have been there! This has been a very good experience."